There were several fires in the midwest that night, consistent with a large meteor breaking up on entry into the atmosphere.
Consider a statement by the Detroit Post on Oct. 10, 1871: "In all parts of the state, as will be noticed by our correspondence during the past few days and also today, there are numerous fires in the wood, in many places approaching so near to towns as to endanger the towns themselves."
In Holland, fire destroyed the city, in Lansing flames threatened the agricultural college and in the Thumb, farmers trying to establish homesteads soon would be diving into shallow wells to escape an inferno some newspapers dubbed: "The Fiery Fiend." Many did not escape.
Fires threatened Muskegon, South Haven, Grand Rapids, Wayland and reached the outskirts of Big Rapids. A steamship passing the Manitou Islands reported they were on fire.
A horror story? Yes. And so real that historic markers to the event can be found at Manistee and in the Thumb. Lots has been written about the storm of fire that killed 2,000 in Peshtigo, Wis., and the Great Chicago Fire and the fires that devastated the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.
Theories for the fires are many - but one thing is certain, the devouring flames showed up at the same time.
The really crazy part: A nun in Wisconsin predicted the fires ahead of time (1859), saying that the Blessed Virgin Mary told her God was going to rain fire from the sky, because the people of that region behaved as if they didn’t know God. She founded a community to teach the children the faith. The Peshtigo fire encircled the community, and the settlement whose children she taught, but they held a prayer procession, and were spared.